Think Like a Historian: Vimy Ridge in Letters

it when it doesn’t hurt so much I think I will be a long while before I can carry a pack again but being a flesh wound it may heal quickly + the only thing is it made my neck a little stiff + makes me hold my bean sideways but it will get over that alright. You remember Britton who married one of the Mac girls when you were in Oshawa well he is napooed + was blew completely in two an H.E. shell got him right in the centre poor fellow. The one which got me killed two and wounded 5 of us one of the poor lads fell across my legs + I thought it was my chum but I rolled him over

he was’nt [sic] dead but I yelled for stretcher bearers + by that time he was gone his two legs severed at the hip + poor lad was better dead, we captured about 3,500 that morning + I should judge about as many were killed or wounded besides that, I think the 1st + 2nd Divisions did equally as well by what I heard they were chiefly the Bavarians at that they are notable fighters but our lads were better. Of course our lads had one thing a good artillery fire be ahead of them but they said about one half of the causualties [sic] were done by our own shells of course you can’t expect much else when they keep up within 25 Yds

3